Rob Knopper, percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is in the middle of his 12 Days of Delécluse. If you are not familiar with Jacques Delecluse’s 12 Etudes for Snare Drum, head out to our friends at Steve Weiss Music and buy yourself a copy of this seminal book for snare drum. There are a couple of books every percussionists should own and this should be one of them. (Other standard snare books include Stick Control, Anthony Cirone’s Portraits in Rhythm and Mitchell Peter’s Intermediate Snare Drum Studies to name a few.) (more…)
In this episode of Percussion Education, I want to introduce the concept of Wrist Lifts. I don’t want this to be confused with the Moeller Technique. If you are not familiar with the Moeller Technique or Method, there are a lot of videos and method books that describe this approach to drumming. (more…)
The Mobius Percussion Quartet is an up and coming group based out of Brooklyn/NYC. They have played multiple concerts and been guests with So Percussion. This piece is a new snare drum quartet by Jason Treuting. For more information about the piece, the composer and the group, read the text from the YouTube post below.
As I was deciding what I was going to post today, I came across this video in the suggested videos on YouTube. (more…)
For the snare drummer, stickings are analogous to bowings for string players. There are two main systems for stickings: 1) Free Alternating System and 2) Right Hand Lead System. Each systems has their advantages and disadvantages. Check out the video for an explanation of each system. (more…)
The snare drum roll is one of the most difficult rudiments on the snare drum. The concept of the roll is easy. The difficulty comes with the execution. Over the past several videos, I have illustrated different strategies for improving the roll. I have found that over the years, I like to vary the exercises that I use to strengthen and improve my rolls. Here are two exercises that are guaranteed to help you develop your rolls. Download the PDF, get out your drum and roll.
Over the past couple of months, I have been introducing snare drum rudiments. For the percussionist, rudiments are like scales. You should be practicing them everyday just like a wind player practices scales. In today’s video, I would like to introduce my snare drum warm-up that I wrote a year ago. This 12 minute warm-up includes all of the basic strokes to give you a well rounded warm-up. Please download a copy of my snare drum warm-up, get out your practice pad, a metronome and go for it. (more…)
